India, Israel join hands to develop 5G technology

The matter was discussed during the visit of Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal to Israel last month, they said.

Sibal and his Israeli counterpart Gilad Erdan in a meeting agreed that both the countries can cooperate on exploring the possibilities of standard formulation, development and manufacturing in the area of 4G and 5G telecom technologies.

"Israel has technology and innovation, India has the capital and market. The two areas which emerge out of discussion related to telecom were reducing roaming charges between India and Israel and exploring the possibilities of standard formulation, research and development, and manufacturing in the area of 4G and 5G," a DoT official said.

At present, Indian telecom operators are providing 2G, 3G and some 4G services. No country in the world has 5G technology while some companies claim to have tested 5G technology. There have been claims by companies that 5G technology will be in place by 2020.

The versions of technology 2G, 3G etc are labelled on the basis of Internet speed they offer on mobile devices.

Technology experts believe 5G technology will enable people to have a fibre network like user experience on a wireless connection. It can provide speed of 10 Gigabit per second Internet speed, which is 100 times faster than the mobile technology used these days.

The Indian government has started process to "constitute joint working group" to work in the area of 4G and 5G.